|  Posted on January 15th,2012I have had some time to sift through the back catalog here at Chine bLog headquarters and noted that I never covered a few key books I read in the last couple years. In particular,after knocking off Tim Severin‘s The China Voyage and then his The Brendan Voyage,I moved on to his some of his other like books. Severin’s trip in BRENDAN,the authentic 9th century curragh,got his wheels spinning,it seems,and he hit on another mythical journey to test:the adventures of Sinbad.  It was commonly accepted at the time (~1980),that these writings were pure myth. Severin arranged to build a replica 9th century dhow in Oman,scouring the Arabian Sea shores for period materials,especially the coconut husk fiber builders of the day used to lash the boat together. Yes,these were plank–on-frame boats that were fully lashed. He and a crew then sailed the boat from Oman to China,identifying sources for the supposedly mythical elements and,thereby,suggesting the Sinbad stories may have been based on an amalgamation of true events.
The first quarter or so of the book is all about the boat and its materials,and that alone makes it worth reading. The actual voyage is not as gripping as that of the BRENDAN,but it is still an engaging story. If you haven’t read any Severin,I’d start with The Brendan Voyage and then grab this one immediately afterwards. Here is a summary piece if you need more convincing. Posted on January 14th,2012 One more on checks I turned up during our clean-out. Here is the check I wrote to the late Harold “Dynamite” Payson for the building manual for my first boat,the Gloucester Light Dory. Pretty momentous purchase right there. 
If anyone is looking to build this great boat,Payson’s book is invaluable. Just get it. You won’t regret it. Posted on November 25th,2011 We recently stumbled across a lovely piece from the Seattle media site crosscut.com about authenticity. It stems form the author’s reflections exhibiting his self-built boats at the Port Townsend (WA) Wooden Boat Festival. He reflects on that tension we all,in the classic / traditional boat world,feel between the desire to have a boat that is “authentic”to its heritage but is practical and/or economical. I have excerpted some bon mots from it;it is well worth reading all the way through. Here’s the principle:An authentic product is something that you,its creator or user,believe in. It may be as minor as a deck cleat or as monumental as a bill passing Congress. If you can’t believe in it,it’s no good.
Most of the boats in the festival are likewise. They’re not pure restorations or replicas;they’re practical,almost living creations that are full of their owners’ hearts and ideas and failures.
As long as you obey the laws of physics,you can build or restore a wooden boat exactly as you want…Your boat will not be ideal or perfect,but you’ll come to terms with this reality and view it as a tangible record of your character and skills at the time. You’ll have built yourself into the product of your work. What could be more authentic than that?
I certainly found the piece spoke to me,especially as I wrestle with such tensions with my own boat. Excellent bit of philosophy. Posted on November 24th,2011  As I have noted before,one of the biggest issues I have found with the skin-on-frame outrigger canoe AL DEMANY CHIMAN is that the ama isn’t working out. The shape is a bit off and it ships too much water. Having completed a number of smaller maintenance items since calling an end to the season,I have begin the winter’s major project:redesigning and rebuilding the ama.
My first step was last night. I unscrewed the “sheer clamps”and the pulled off the skin. What I found was a bit distressing,if not wholly unexpected:there has been water trapped beneath the skin and the frame doing what water will do.  You can see that dark area where the oil I put on the bow piece didn’t help (or wasn’t enough). The part above that was quite wet,and that is from rain somehow getting in (or,forbid,leftover from a month ago –shudder). The line where the skin met the bow piece is distressingly evident,though this is more mildew. The bigger issue here is that the two planks that make up that piece have separated (note the slight hitch in the “sheerline”). The afte end is better off,but has a few issues of it’s own.  So this leaves me with the question of how to proceed from here,as I have to approach this project with an additional variable. Factors I am thinking about are: - I need to reconstruct the ama so that it does not ship water
- I want to preserve the skin-on-frame look as much as possible
- It is unlikely that,with the skin-on-frame medium,I can keep all water out
- If I make the ama a good deal more watertight,but not 100% so,I’ll end up with more of the issues noted above
- A new ama that is fully watertight and water-protected may not go as well with the rest of the boat
A bit of a quandary,eh? My current thinking is to unlash the frame,coat every inside surface with the same two-part polyurethane that coats the skin,partially relash,add foam to fill the inside,and reskin the ama. My guess is that this approach leaves some vulnerability to water damage,but hopefully holds it off a good bit. Any other ideas or approaches you all would recommend? Please comment below. Many thanks, Posted on October 29th,2011 
For some tie I have known of Douglas Brooks,a Vermont boatbuilder who became fascinated with traditional Japanese boats several years ago and has since traveled there a few times to study and document traditional boats and construction methods. There was a nice piece about him recently in the Japan Times Online that focused particularly on Brooks’s efforts on Okinawa to find a surviving traditional builder of native sabani,a local sailing canoe. The article links to a resource site with more about sabani,which look extremely interesting and capture,I believe,faint elements of the traditional craft to their south. The image abve comes from that site. Posted on October 25th,2011 
As I work away on refinements to the sailing rig for my skin-on-frame outrigger sailing canoe AL DEMANY CHIMAN,I wanted to show off a few more details of the rig as it is. I posted a variant of this view before,but I think this is a better picture. It gives a sense of the overall layout and the different rig elements. Here is the steer oar and its chalk. This set-up worked reasonably well,though I might eventually want to put some weight on blade end. 
This view shows the hiking plank and mainsheet leads. 
Finally,some detail on the finished blocks,which I hand made from paduak. 
I can’t wait to get her going again next season. Posted on October 2nd,2011 I wanted to get these pictures of the 2011 Mid-Atlantic Small Craft Festival up right away;I’ll be adding captions soon. [UPDATE] Captions are now on there. I encourage you to browse through. There were some AMAZING AMAZING boats there. I’d highlight the sailing canoe SEVEN STARS,the Melonseeds,the sailing canoe in pictures 4 and 31,and,of course,the Coquina. Posted on October 1st,2011 
She’s all ready for show… Posted on September 30th,2011 For the next 24-odd hours Chine bLog is reporting LIVE from the 2011 Mid-Atlantic Small Craft Festival at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in St. Michael’s,MD. As I type on my smart phone,a lovely folk trio is playing in the background while folks eat and mingle. A whole fleet of amazing boats is already here,and I’ll be sharing some in the AM. The biggest news,from our perspective,is that the skin-on-frame outrigger canoe AL DEMANY CHIMAN finally got under sail today. That was the afternoon’s goal and we got it done. As you may recall,“DEMANY”means “sail”,so she has fully taken her name. Results? Well,winds were light,but we completed several tacks and had no catastrophic issues. That said,we have some work to do. The leeboard is not behaving well at all and was minimally useful. Design flaw there. The configuration of steering vs. sheet will also take some getting used to. All told,though,we’ll call it a success. Stay tuned… [UPDATE] The sailing rig did not fair so well during the blustery next day. While still on land showing off her rig,the yard snapped (building flaw) and the mast partner lashing failed (design flaw). Neither was catastrophic,but we’ll need to deal with these issues before we get back on the water under sail. A guy who was next to the rig when it broke looked at me like my brother just died and said a sincere “I’m sorry.”It was a bummer,yes,but I regard the whole boat as an experiment and a learning experience,particularly the sailing rig. I will learn from this and fix the issues and we will be back. This boat CAN sail –we proved that. Posted on September 22nd,2011 
I finished up the spars for the sailing rig on my skin-on-frame outrigger canoe,AL DEMANY CHIMAN today. That meant setting the sail for the first time. Some kinks to work out,but good progress. | |
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